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Children-Friendly Events

Chalk-It-Up Community DayHot

Encouraging healthy and beautiful activities in your community can be accomplished in more ways than one. One inexpensive and fun way to encourage creativity and murals is by providing ways to make the temporary kind!

Chalk art is a simple and inexpensive way to celebrate the warmer weather. There are few requirements for this event other than available sidewalk space and quality chalk. It also encourages residents to come together and make large-scale works of art right in your community.

With this event, you’ll be encouraging residents to create large colorful chalk works of art on your community’s sidewalks over a one-two day period. You can either provide each resident with a box of chalk for free or charge a minimal registration fee to offset the cost of the quality color chalks.

A $10 pre-registration fee per sidewalk square will cover the cost of a box of chalk pastels through Amazon. You could also inquire at a local art store about quantity discounts.

**BONUS** Consider offering prizes per building for the most amazing sidewalk art for residents in garden-style communities.

Here are a few other things to keep in mind for this event.

Wear Sunscreen

Since you are going to be outside for most of the day in the sun, it makes sense to apply sunblock to exposed areas. Wear a large brimmed hat, sunglasses, and long sleeves to minimize sun exposure.

Pay special attention to protecting your back, arms, back of your legs, and neck. They will all be exposed to the most sun as you crouch over your artwork.

Bring Knee Protection Consider bringing knee protectors or an old pillow to help prevent aches and pains from crouching and kneeling over your art. At the very least, you’ll want to ensure that you have something to lean on if you need to reach the far corners of your art.

In this case, bring a medium-sized piece of cardboard to rest your hands and knees on so that you won’t smudge your drawing.

Plan What You Want to Draw

Have a basic idea of what you want to create at the event. Print or sketch your design ahead of time and put it in a sheet protector to keep it from getting dirty and dusty with chalk.

**TIP** Consider approving resident’s designs ahead of time to ensure the designs are family-friendly and appropriate for your whole community.

Use a Grid for Your Drawing

If you want your drawing to be accurate and straight, consider using a grid over the source picture when translating the picture down onto the sidewalk. This way, residents can draw their pictures square by square - starting at the top and working their way down.

Start From the Top of Your Chalk Drawing

This one is important. If you start at the bottom, you’ll smudge and wreck your chalk drawing as you work your way up. Instead, start at the top and work your way down coloring each box of your grid until you hit the bottom. This way you’ll finish without destroying all your hard work.

Swap Colored Chalk with Other Participants

If you need a lot of yellow chalk, and your neighbor needs a lot of blue, trade your chalk with each other to ensure that everyone gets the colored chalk they need. Barter with other residents to get the colors of chalk you need to finish your design.

You can encourage residents to try their hand at more advanced techniques. Blending with a sponge or brush can give drawings a more painterly effect. It also allows the chalk to seep into the pores of the cement for a stronger and more weather resistant design.

Clean up

There is not much you need to do to clean up, most communities wait until the chalk drawings fade away naturally. Do to foot traffic and the natural washing of rain and other weather. However, you can also wash and scrub away the chalk drawings with water and stiff brooms, or a pressure washer, to make quick work of chalk clean up.

**BONUS** Consider making your chalk art party a yearly event. Practice makes perfect and you’ll have a higher number of participants year after year. Remember, practice makes perfect!